The present invention relates to an apparatus for liquid flushing of body cavities and/or supply of active substance, for instance medicine, to such cavities. Such body cavities can be ears, vagina, wounds, bronchial tree, intestines, etc. Besides cleaning body cavities, the apparatus can be used for sample examinations, wherein for example cells (cancer tests) or infected materials (bacteria, fungeus, virus such as AIDS, etc.) are rinsed out and analyzed.
Ear wax plugs and inconveniencies connected therewith are a great problem. Every fifteenth visit in a ENT department is estimated to be caused by unsatisfying cleaning of ears. Such patients are also often taken care of by consultants and in non-hospital offices.
ENT-specialists usually remove wax plugs by high pressure flushing and/or by suction or by manual cleaning. These methods are reliable, however they are time consuming and personally demanding. High pressure flushing is the most effective method at present. Owing to the risk for tympanic membrane perforation and injure to the ear canal the method cannot be recommended for ones own use, nor for unskilled staff.
In non-hospital offices the patients either receive a recommendation to use a product for ones own use which is at present existing in the market, which however does not in a satisfactory way solve the problems for most patients, or attempts are made to flush the ears unless a consultation request is given to an ENT specialist.
As to other fields for use of an apparatus according to the invention, diagnostic search and treatment of lung disorders is at present usually carried out in such a way that first the patient is anaesthetized, possibly locally anaesthetized, however usually not in an AIDS search, whereupon a fiber instrument, so called bronchoscope, is moved down into the lung. The bronchoscope is provided with a channel through which a plastic hose is moved down to a small segment in the lung. Liquid is thereafter flushed through the hose and most of the liquid is later sucked back by an ordinary injection syringe. From the syringe the liquid is transmitted to various different sample vessels.
This search method has several disadvantages, among other things it is time-consuming owing to the general anesthesia which usually is required. The bronchoscope is a comparatively large instrument moved down through the respiratory tract. Moreover, a certain risk for infections exists during the different steps in such a method. It can finally be mentioned that patients in most cases must remain in the hospital.